The first order of business on our four day Bahama cruise -- check out the pool! Aunt Johnnie was nice enough to volunteer to take Riley swimming since she knows I'm not a huge fan. Riley had a blast but the water was straight from the ocean and super salty. He kept splashing himself in the face and according to Johnnie, it stung pretty bad so he kept running over to me and asking for a towel to wipe his eyes. Ouch! Wish I would have thought to bring some of Daddy's goggles with me but I had no clue they had salt water pools on the ship...I thought they were just regular chlorine pools! Regardless, Riley had a great time swimming every day with either Aunt Johnnie, Nannie, or Uncle Jason.
After we swam, we headed to the top deck to wave goodbye to the Port of Miami.
Riley liked looking out the little porthole in our room...
Riley did great during our long formal dinners! He never sits for more than about 20-30 minutes to eat but I managed to keep him entertained with food and toys for our one and a half hour dinners all four nights! The first night I ordered prime rib for both of us and he ate half of it all by himself!
And then was not even phased when the big piece of chocolate cake came out...he dug into that too!
Just FYI...for those of you thinking of taking kids on a cruise, wait until they are three and potty trained. Unfortunately, Riley is neither so he could not participate in the all day camp they had for kids. So we had to find other ways to occupy our time. When it was early in the morning and I wanted a few more minutes of sleep, the DVD player was a lifesaver! Riley liked sitting on the porthole ledge and watching Wall-E.
The first port of call was Nassau...it was pretty touristy and gross. We ended up taking the kids to a pirate museum which was not the best idea. First of all, it was a hike from the ship through crowded streets. And second of all, none of the kids liked it. It was dark inside and according to Jace, "Spooky!" Riley started crying before we even walked in the door because there was a pirate outside greeting people. We rushed through as fast as we could with three whining and crying kids...all in all, a waste of money. But we did manage one cute picture of Jace out of the whole ordeal!
The second night at dinner was formal night...I took the opportunity to put Riley back in his cute little tuxedo and he was a hit!
He was reluctant to smile at first but a few tickles from Mommy resolved that issue!
When we got back to our room, our stateroom attendant made an animal out of our towels and Aunt Johnnie's glasses!
The second port of call was Cocokay, an island owned by Royal Carribean. It's pretty lame and there's not a lot to do but the kids liked playing in the ocean.
After we swam, we headed to the top deck to wave goodbye to the Port of Miami.
Riley liked looking out the little porthole in our room...
Riley did great during our long formal dinners! He never sits for more than about 20-30 minutes to eat but I managed to keep him entertained with food and toys for our one and a half hour dinners all four nights! The first night I ordered prime rib for both of us and he ate half of it all by himself!
And then was not even phased when the big piece of chocolate cake came out...he dug into that too!
Just FYI...for those of you thinking of taking kids on a cruise, wait until they are three and potty trained. Unfortunately, Riley is neither so he could not participate in the all day camp they had for kids. So we had to find other ways to occupy our time. When it was early in the morning and I wanted a few more minutes of sleep, the DVD player was a lifesaver! Riley liked sitting on the porthole ledge and watching Wall-E.
The first port of call was Nassau...it was pretty touristy and gross. We ended up taking the kids to a pirate museum which was not the best idea. First of all, it was a hike from the ship through crowded streets. And second of all, none of the kids liked it. It was dark inside and according to Jace, "Spooky!" Riley started crying before we even walked in the door because there was a pirate outside greeting people. We rushed through as fast as we could with three whining and crying kids...all in all, a waste of money. But we did manage one cute picture of Jace out of the whole ordeal!
The second night at dinner was formal night...I took the opportunity to put Riley back in his cute little tuxedo and he was a hit!
He was reluctant to smile at first but a few tickles from Mommy resolved that issue!
When we got back to our room, our stateroom attendant made an animal out of our towels and Aunt Johnnie's glasses!
The second port of call was Cocokay, an island owned by Royal Carribean. It's pretty lame and there's not a lot to do but the kids liked playing in the ocean.
The sand was really soft and would bury your feet when the waves came on the shore.
Riley was very entranced by the whole thing.
Sawyer, our little porcelin prince, even had an opportunity to get out in the sun and enjoy the sand and water :)
Jace and Uncle Tim had a good time hanging out together...
And Riley even joined in the fun once he got bored with the soft sand!
Uncle Tim found a hermit crab for Jace, who wouldn't let it crawl on his hand unless there was a layer of sand there. I don't blame him!
Aunt Trisha loaned Riley her goggles when he kept getting the salty water in his eyes...
And Riley searched for sea shells with his goggles on...just in case the water splashed up from the waves!
Uncle Tim helped Jace and Riley find some really cool shells and then they all built a sand castle together with Aunt Trisha!
The last port of call was Key West, Florida...it was nice to be back in the good 'ol U.S. again! The city was clean and not as crazy and crowded as Nassau. We took the kids to an aquarium. They had open water tanks so I tasked Jace with holding Riley's hand. Jace took the task very seriously and would not let go even though Riley tried to pry himself away. It was pretty hilarious! Jace is very good at enforcing rules upon other people...a future cop, maybe?
We saw lots of fish, crabs, sharks, turtles, sting rays, and alligators. Some of the tanks you could even reach in to pick up the animals...you just had to be very careful about reading the signs. It's not a good idea to stick your hand in the tank expecting a horse shoe crab and get a shark bite instead! We definitely kept close tabs on the kids in this place!
Sawyer, our little porcelin prince, even had an opportunity to get out in the sun and enjoy the sand and water :)
Jace and Uncle Tim had a good time hanging out together...
And Riley even joined in the fun once he got bored with the soft sand!
Uncle Tim found a hermit crab for Jace, who wouldn't let it crawl on his hand unless there was a layer of sand there. I don't blame him!
Aunt Trisha loaned Riley her goggles when he kept getting the salty water in his eyes...
And Riley searched for sea shells with his goggles on...just in case the water splashed up from the waves!
Uncle Tim helped Jace and Riley find some really cool shells and then they all built a sand castle together with Aunt Trisha!
The last port of call was Key West, Florida...it was nice to be back in the good 'ol U.S. again! The city was clean and not as crazy and crowded as Nassau. We took the kids to an aquarium. They had open water tanks so I tasked Jace with holding Riley's hand. Jace took the task very seriously and would not let go even though Riley tried to pry himself away. It was pretty hilarious! Jace is very good at enforcing rules upon other people...a future cop, maybe?
We saw lots of fish, crabs, sharks, turtles, sting rays, and alligators. Some of the tanks you could even reach in to pick up the animals...you just had to be very careful about reading the signs. It's not a good idea to stick your hand in the tank expecting a horse shoe crab and get a shark bite instead! We definitely kept close tabs on the kids in this place!
At this point, my camera ran out of batteries and I had a hard time finding the charger...so I didn't get any pictures of our last dinner but it was uneventful. Overall, a fun cruise but we all decided we will wait until all of the kids are at least three (and potty trained) before we do another big family cruise.
No comments:
Post a Comment